In the ninth year of the trial phase of the trial for the bankruptcy of Corpbank, the former head of the bank Tsvetan Vassilev, who is a defendant in absentia, declared that the judicial panel is illegal. The reason - according to Vassilev's defense, the judge in the case was not seconded according to the legal rules.
The case, which is still somewhere in the first instance, was filed and went to a special court in 2017. After its closure in the summer of 2022, the case was transferred to the Sofia City Court. The law states that the judicial panel, due to the principle of irremovability, continues to hear the case until its completion, and in the event that the judge is not appointed to the Sofia City Court, he is seconded, explains Vassilev's lawyer Greta Ganeva. In this case, Judge Virginia Petrova, who presides over the panel, was not appointed to the Sofia City Court, but to the Sofia Administrative Court, writes "Sega".
Since the closure of the special court until now, Judge Petrova has been seconded by orders issued by the President of the Supreme Administrative Court.
According to the lawyer, the law does not allow the head of the Supreme Administrative Court to second judges from administrative courts to general courts, as is the case. And this makes his orders null and void, from which it follows that the case is being heard by an illegal panel.
"What is the effect if a case is being heard against you by an illegal panel? For the law, it will be exactly the same as it would be if the neighbors were watching it from the benches in front of the block - none", Ganeva wrote on Facebook.
Since the law provides that the Judicial College of the Supreme Judicial Council can establish violations of the terms and conditions during secondment. That is why the case was brought to the attention of the college by the lawyer.
Ganeva also claims that a report requested by the Supreme Judicial Council showed that all criminal cases from a special court, sent for completion by the Sofia City Court and heard by seconded administrative judges, were seconded by the President of the Supreme Judicial Council. "This is an absolute basis for returning the case from its very beginning, since a verdict issued by an illegal panel is tantamount to a lack of a verdict", she says.
But by a vote of 5 to 3, the Judicial College decided on June 2 that Tsvetan Vassilev cannot refer them. This decision is to be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court.
Dragomir Koyadzhikov argued that although the law does not say who exactly has the right to refer problems with secondment to the SJC, this can be done by the judge himself or the president of the court from which the respective judge was seconded.
Atanaska Disheva and Tsvetinka Pashkunova were of the opinion that Tsvetan Vassilev's request should be considered, says "Lex". The president of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Galina Zakharova, also voted with them.
"I will return to Bulgaria if a new objective trial for Corpbank is guaranteed, because I have no intention of legitimizing a mega-case that is illegal against me because it is being considered illegally," Tsvetan Vassilev, who now lives in Serbia, said a month ago in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.